Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Loyalty Program

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Points are worth 25% more when you redeem for travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards®

Earn 3 points per $1 on the first $150,000 spent in combined purchases in the following categories each account anniversary year: Travel, Shipping purchases, Internet, cable and phone services, Advertising purchases with social media sites and search engines.

Southwest has stayed true to its customer-friendly policies such as 2 free checked bags per person on every ticket, while the “legacy” U.S. airlines have frequently cut travel benefits. With the rollout of restrictive basic economy fares on American, Delta, and United, you could even consider these as more “budget” airlines now based on travel experience.

Rapid Rewards is a revenue-based program, meaning you earn points based on the amount spent on flights rather than distance flown. Similarly, you redeem points based on the price of the ticket. However, point values are not fixed — they fluctuate based on several factors, so pick what flights to use them on to get the best value.

Joining Rapid Rewards

How to Sign in to Your Rapid Rewards Account

Sign in on the southwest.com homepage. You’ll need your account number or username and password.

Viewing Your Account Activity

Use the My Rapid Rewards page to manage your profile and see your account snapshot, activity, and promotions.

Points Expiration

Rapid Rewards points expire after 24 months of inactivity. Any earning or redeeming activity qualifies to reset the clock.

Southwest Rapid Rewards Mileage Program

Southwest Airlines A-List Status

Rapid Rewards has 2 elite status levels, A-List and A-List Preferred.

A-List Benefits:

Priority check-in and security

Priority boarding

Free same-day standby

25% point bonus

A-List Preferred Benefits:

All A-List benefits, plus

Free inflight Wi-Fi

100% point bonus

Value of Rapid Rewards Elite Status

Southwest Airlines does not have first class seats or worldwide airline partners, so many of the elite benefits of other airline programs are not relevant. Similarly, since Southwest tickets come with free checked baggage and their generous change/cancel policy, elite status holders don’t need these kinds of fee waivers.

What A-List and A-List Preferred do add are a few choice travel benefits that improve the Southwest flying experience.

Without advance seat assignments, priority boarding through A-List is a great benefit.

Moving up to A-List Preferred, free inflight Wi-Fi is a benefit provided by no other U.S. airline elite status.

Beyond A-List Preferred there is the Companion Pass that we discuss below. It does not come with any traditional elite benefits, but it solely awards free companion travel. It is also earned by a different method than A-List, making it possible to have a Companion Pass without A-List status.

How to Earn Southwest Rapid Rewards Points

Flying Southwest

You earn Rapid Rewards points for Southwest flights based on your fare type and price:

Business Select – 12 points per dollar (excludes taxes and fees)

Anytime – 10 points per dollar (excludes taxes and fees)

Wanna Get Away – 6 points per dollar (excludes taxes and fees)

Travelers with A-List status earn additional bonus points:

A-List — 25% bonus Rapid Rewards points

A-List Preferred— 100% bonus Rapid Rewards points

Flying Partner Airlines

Southwest does not have partner airlines.

Earn Points With Rental Car Partners

Earn 600 points per rental when you book a car through Southwest’s rental car partners.

These are especially useful for rentals with agencies where many other airlines offer few or no miles: Alamo, Budget, Dollar, Thrifty, and Payless. You can also earn points with Avis, Hertz, and National.

Even better, check out special offers for rental cars. Current offers for Rapid Rewards members include 1,200-2,400 bonus points plus up to 35% off rentals through January 2018!

Chase credit cards with Ultimate Rewards earn points quickly in bonus categories, which can be seen in the table below.

You need at least 1 premium travel rewards card (“*” in below table) to transfer to Southwest. As long as you have 1 eligible transfer card, you can consolidate all your Ultimate Rewards points to that card.

The Southwest Rapid Rewards Dining Program

Southwest’s Dining Program earns 3 points per dollar when dining at restaurants in the network. (If you decline to receive email notifications you only earn 1 point per $2.)

Sign-up bonuses range from 300 to 2,000 points and change from time to time. Bonuses typically require at least 1 qualifying dine within 30 days of registration, so plan ahead prior to joining.

Rapid Rewards Dining is provided by Rewards Network, which also manages the other major airline dining programs. You can be in multiple programs, though each credit card can only be registered in 1 program at a time.

Southwest’s elite status tiers are A-List and A-List Preferred, and the Companion Pass is the highest award tier available (though it isn’t exactly an elite status).

Benefits of the various levels include priority boarding, bonus points, standby priority, and unlimited companion tickets (at the top tier).

In addition to using points to book rewards tickets, you can also use your points on travel partners. These include hotels and rental cars as well as shopping and more.

Because Southwest only flies domestically as a low-cost carrier, they partner with most major airlines to redeem international flights using points.

Where is my Southwest Rapid Rewards number?

You can find your Rapid Rewards number in a few different ways. First, you can sign in to your rewards account with your email and password if you have it available; your number will be shown on your account screen.

Next, you can find it on your membership card if you have it.

If you can’t access your accounts, you can use the “forgot my password” tool to send an email to your account. Finally, you can always call Southwest’s customer service in order to find your number.

What is the Southwest Companion Pass?

Once you’ve reached 100 one-way flights or 110,000 points, you will get the ability to take 1 companion on any flight with you for free (they pay for taxes and fees, which in the U.S. are $5.60 each way).

This status is good immediately once you reach the level and through the remainder of the calendar year, then again for the rest of the following calendar year. In order to maintain the status, you must reach this level each year.

Alex has been traveling for over 25 years and from a young age was lucky enough to set out on numerous family trips all over the world, which gave him the travel bug. Alex has since earned millions of travel points and miles, mainly through maximizing credit card sign-up bonuses and taking every opportunity to earn the most points possible on each dollar spent.

1 comment

It is worth mentioning that booking a hotel with southwest rapid rewards is the most miserable experience booking a hotel of a persons life. Their website speed and capabilities remind me of a website from the late 90’s being run on a farm in Missouri. It took me 2.5 hours to book one hotel for one night in Florence, Italy because the slow site and false advertising. Each time I would chose a hotel the points would rise by 4000 and then I would have to go back and find another options. Miserable experience.

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Many of the credit card offers that appear on this site are from credit card companies from which we receive compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site (including, for example, the order in which they appear). This site does not include all credit card companies or all available credit card offers. For more information on our advertisers, see here.